The Other Widow - Softcover

Susan H. Crawford

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571321925 ISBN 13: 9780571321926

Publisher: FABER & FABER, 2016

Synopsis

Other Widow

About this title

From the Author:

If I were to say what The Other Widow is about, I would say it's about perceptions, preconceived ideas, ours or others'. It's about judgement and forgiveness. Ultimately, it's about understanding that underneath, we are not so different. Our situations vary wildly, our experiences change us, mold us, but on some level we have much in common.
            The"other woman" is the bad seed in a triangle set up by her presence.Homewrecker, cruel seductress, she ruins lives and breaks up families. Her position makes her something of a siren, even if she happens to be an aging librarian or a neighbor with four noisy kids. The only real requirement is that she be, in the immortal bellowed words of Dolly Parton, "woman enough to take my man." Of course the implication is that the poor guy is oblivious and ripe for the picking, a plump blueberry, plucked and dropped into the twisted prickly basket of a predatory female.
            The wife, on the other hand, is stereotypically a little cold, a little too preoccupied with work or motherhood or both to treat her husband properly.Perhaps she's moody, hates to clean, or orders Chinese takeout on a nightly basis. Maybe she texts in bed or falls asleep on the couch in front of Shark Tank episodes. Possibly, her eyes begin to close when hubby grumbles about his current boss, the unfair constraints of his job, his time, his life. Enter the temptress!
            On another level, of course, is the story, the mystery that emerges when we shake these and other players together and sprinkle them into a boiling pot of intrigue. Which player is the catalyst for death, and which the victim? Which will be the pawns, which the queens, and which are merely innocents who stand by helplessly? Bobbing to the top is Maggie, an Iraq veteran struggling with PTSD. Her life is far more difficult and challenging than those of the others, but ironically she is the anchor, the problem solver. Determined to rebuild a shattered life, she ties unraveled threads.
            The Other Widow is an attempt to strip away stereotypes, to pull the mask off mental illness and understand the face beneath, to see that frequently the wronged and the wrongdoers are the same or interchangeable. It often is positioning in life that to a large extent determines who we are and what we do. Angels or devils, heroes or villains. Who's to say?

From the Inside Flap:

"It isn't safe. For us." That's what Joe tells her when he ends their affair - seconds before a passing car on an icy road in a blinding snowstorm sends them skidding into a tree. Nearly run down as she struggles from the wreckage, Dorrie is desperate - not only to keep her marriage intact, but to figure out if someone's trying to kill her. And if so, who? She has always been an excellent actress, pretending to be the dutiful daughter, the satisfied wife, the woman who can handle anything. Now she must put on the most challenging performance of her life as details of the accident leave her feeling more and more unsettled and afraid. Why didn't Joe's airbag work? Why was his car door open before the EMTs arrived? And now suddenly someone is calling her from her dead lover's burner phone . . .
        Karen knew her husband, Joe, was cheating , but Joe's death has left his wife in free fall. Trying to rebuild her life and cope with grief is devastating enough without the constant fear that's overtaken her - this feeling she can't shake that someone is watching her, knows her secrets. Now, with Joe gone and the kids grown, she's vulnerable . . . and on her own.
         Insurance investigator Maggie Devlin is suspicious of the latest claim that's landed on her desk - a man dying on an icy road shortly after buying a sizable life insurance policy. Maggie doesn't believe in coincidences. The former cop knows that things - and people - are never what they seem to be. Back from Iraq and suffering from PTSD, Maggie questions everything and everyone. Can she trust her judgment when a random traffic accident begins to look like something far more sinister?
            As the fates of these three women become more tightly entwined, layers of lies and deception begin to peel away, pushing the three dangerously to the edge . . . closer to one another . . . to a terrifying truth . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: FABER & FABER
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0571321925
• ISBN 13: 9780571321926
• Binding: Paperback